Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Xeviat-DM Jun 02, 2015 14:18:31	Hello everyone! I had a question about the order of opperations on sneak attacks. The book says "once per turn, you can deal" your sneak attack damage.   Does turn mean from the start of your round till the start of your next round? Does it mean each individual creature's turn, so it can be reactivated with a Commander's Strike or an opportunity attack?   How does it interact with two weapon fighting? Obviously, it only works once per turn, but what about crits? Crits multiply all of your damage dice by 2; this means sneak attack dice are double as well. What if your first attack is a hit and your second attack is a crit; can you choose to wait to see if the second attack is a miss, hit, or crit before applying your sneak attack to the first hit, or would that risk wasting your sneak attack if your second attack proved to be a miss?   I'm inclined to believe that you can't wait to see the success or failure of your second attack before you apply your sneak attack damage. I'm inclined to believe your choice of if you'll apply sneak attack damage is made at the time of the hit, not at the en of your round.   What do you think?
#2 Tempest_Stormwind Jun 02, 2015 14:33:09	Generally speaking, "once per turn" means from the start of a creature's turn to the start of the next creature's turn in the same initiative count, while "once per round" means from the start of your turn to the start of your next turn. That's why sneak attack works on opportunity attacks (the attack is coming on someone else's turn) or the Thief's Reflexes extra turn (a second turn in the same round).   As for crits and Sneak Attack, if your sneak attack is a crit, you roll all the dice (including the sneak attack dice) twice. Furthermore, the sneak attack isn't its own thing - it's increasing the actual damage of the attack (that is, a single source, not two sources).   Those three points are mostly clear from the text, but have been consistently cleared up by tweets from everyone involved. The only area that's a touch murkier is if you can "hold off" on Sneak Attack. My impression is "no" - you don't roll both attacks at once and figure out the result, you roll sequentially (attack / damage, then attack / damage) and the first attack where the conditions are met automatically triggers Sneak Attack. (Compare the wording to Divine Smite, which does allow you to hold off and pull the trigger after you see if it's a crit).
#3 Noctaem Jun 02, 2015 15:02:42	Tempest_Stormwind wrote:
#4 Xeviat-DM Jun 02, 2015 16:05:45	By my reading, the Rogue "can" choose whether or not to deal their sneak attack damage. But, mathematically, it doesn't seem beneficial to not apply sneak attack on your first hit with twfing to hold off for a possible crit, unless you absolutely know you will hit with the second attack. My interpretation is that once you make your second attack roll, the option for the "trigger" has been pulled.
#5 Horwath Jun 03, 2015 0:32:37	@Xeviat, sometimes, like in TWF it's OK not to sneak attack with main hand.   when we started HotDQ, my 1st level rogue, when not fighting with longbow, but 2 shorswords against low HP monsters 4-6HP(like kobolds) I used sneak attack on my off hand, where I had no dex to damage, so I could try to kill 2 kobolds per turn.
#6 Rya.Reisender Jun 03, 2015 1:38:49	I require my players to state they want to use sneak attack before rolling the hit die. Whether they want to choose freely or just want me to assume that they automatically use it on the first attack they do per turn is pretty much up to them.
#7 Noctaem Jun 03, 2015 4:03:04	Xeviat-DM wrote:
#8 Barky Jun 03, 2015 16:11:15	I'd like to ask a related question:    There are abilities that allow an attack as a reaction. Let's say the rogue has used Sneak Attack during their own turn. If that rogue then gets a reaction attack, and they still meet the conditions of a Sneak Attack, can the rogue get that damage bonus again?   I'm thinking "no", becasue the rogue already used it "once per turn".    What about opportunity attacks? Same question.
#9 mrpopstar Jun 03, 2015 16:15:50	Barky wrote:
#10 Noctaem Jun 03, 2015 16:17:25	Barky wrote:
#11 Barky Jun 03, 2015 19:17:13	Noctaem wrote:
#12 Noctaem Jun 04, 2015 6:06:21	Barky wrote: